


White Rose Lullaby

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Weiss singing, future au fic, high concentration of sap, is lesbian spawn appropriate for all ages?, rating this as teen even though nothing happens because I just don't know anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 11:42:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1603907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe Ruby can’t sing like Weiss, but she has become a champion hummer since their daughter was born.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Rose Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> First posted on Tumblr and yes, hello, this is Dauntless speaking~ 
> 
> Time to put all this mush somewhere I can keep track of it.

The tune is soft and simple. She forgets if she picked it up somewhere or if it was something born from the grogginess of early mornings, those endless grey hours before sunrise that made the already empty halls of White Castle feel like tomb.

She couldn’t blame little Briar for crying into the silence- but humming was better than wailing, Ruby thought, and at least Weiss could sleep through it.

God knows Weiss needed more sleep these days.

Those were big person problems, though. Boring stuff filled with boring meetings and even more boring dinner parties where the things they had just agreed to might finally be prodded into motion.

People were always saying that Weiss had a short temper, but Ruby would have happily thrown all of the Schnee Company out the window on her second day if  _she’d_  been the one to inherit the mess.

The young new president was doing an amazing job so far as Ruby could tell. That just made it all the more important that Weiss stay in bed for more than four hours each night- there was a  _lot_  riding on the reforms she was trying to slip into place.

The future of thousands of families depended on what the Schnee Dust Company did next. Beyond even that, they could make or break the delicate Faunus-Human peace that had formed, ever so slowly, over the last few years.

It was a big job and the result was a pretty grumpy after-dinner Weiss, but Ruby knew the ex-huntress would manage in the end… 

 _If_  she got some sleep.

Which brought Ruby here, cradling a warm bundle of blankets in her arms as she waltzed them through Wiess’s dark study, humming a nameless tune to lull her daughter to sleep.

Her  _daughter_.

 _Their_  daughter.

She still couldn’t really believe it.

Ruby grinned and allowed them a tiny twirl across the carpet, just enough to earn a burbling giggle of delight. All memory of tears or frightening silences faded away as they spun through moonlight and shadows-

“She will never fall asleep if you keep exciting her.”

Ten years of huntress training and less than a year as a parent kept Ruby from stumbling.

“Ah, Weiss! It’s okay, you can stay in bed! Little Bee’s fine. Just, you know, kinda fussy-“

“All three of should be in bed, Ruby.”

Weiss was as pale as the snow in her family name, bleary eyed and beautiful as she leaned against the open door in her nightgown.

“I had assumed all three of us  _were_  in bed last night, and the night before that- but obviously _you_  haven’t been.”

If Ruby had been born with Faunus ears they would have drooped at the tone in Weiss’s voice.

“How did you- I mean, it was only once or twice-“

Weiss rolled her eyes and stifled a yawn, pushing off the door frame to join them in the middle of the bookshelf-lined room.

“..Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the shadows under your eyes? Or the fact that you’ve started to  _snore_  instead of read in the afternoons?”

Ruby quailed under the weight of that one delicately lifted eyebrow. 

Arguing or denial weren’t options anymore. The only way left was to explain and hope that logic would be enough to sway Weiss- though it rarely ever was. 

“She’s just scared of the quiet… I’m sure it’ll get better after a while. And I don’t mind napping a bit during the day to make up for this, I’ve got plenty of free time…”  _Unlike you._

Weiss, leaning in to tickle Briar with a loose lock of her hair, shot Ruby a glance that said she had most certainly heard the unsaid words and disagreed with them strongly.

Ruby squared her shoulders, ready to be stubborn.

Weiss could disagree all she wanted- it wouldn’t change the truth.

One of them was busy saving Remnant, the other only had to keep her scythe sharp and spend time with a cantankerous angel. Of the pair, Ruby was the best choice for a little missed sleep.

A tiny hand reached up to tug one snowy strand, and Weiss’s face softened into smile- a  _real_  smile.

Not the kind that got glued on with the morning cup of coffee and was barely clinging on by the time evening rolled around. This one was relaxed, warm… but also just a little bit….

… Afraid?

“Weiss?”

“You should tell me if this happens again, Dolt.”

Briar giggled, probably from the tickling, though it almost sounded like she was laughing at the nickname. She pulled the white strands down to cover her face, occasionally peering up at Weiss in game of peek-a-boo.

Weiss was still smiling, but that brittle edge was clearer than ever as she went on.

“I sleep right next to you for, Remnant’s sake. If our little hellion demands a song and dance from you three nights in a row, then wake me up and let me do  _my_  part. She has two mothers to boss around, after all.”

A little jolt went through Ruby as she finally realized- ‘ _Dolt’ is right, I really am slow_ –what had Weiss worried.

Weiss had been a daughter all her life… but she had rarely ever had parents.

She said she didn’t blame them. She said that it made sense, the fate of the family company was more important than reading bedtime stories to one child-

But she was scared of being like them.

She was scared of giving her daughter the same lonely life she had grown up with.

Weiss looked cute when she worried, but Ruby was certain that she didn’t have any real reason to fret. After all-

“That’s right. You  _are_  right here. ”

Ruby bent to place a kiss on Weiss’s unusually unruly bangs.

“She has two really  _great_  mothers. Aaaand one of them can even  _sing!_ ”

With a sigh Weiss straightened up, her forehead creased with fond exasperation.

“You are going to make me sing for her, aren’t you?”

“She’ll love it!”

“She needs to go to sleep, Ruby, not start an infant’s version of a rave.”

“Music will help her fall asleep! I always liked having some noise in the background when I was little- didn’t you?”

Weiss gave a non-committal shrug.

“No one ever bothered singing to me as a child. I doubt any the nannies could have held a tune in any case.”

“That settles it then. Here, your captive audience!”

“My what-?”

Ruby didn’t give Weiss time to protest as she carefully unloaded the bundle of blankets into her arms.

Briar blinked up at them from this new vantage point, obviously trying to decide whether or not the change was something worth crying about. 

“Better hurry and start singing, I think I can see her lungs reloading…”

“S-sing? Sing what, exactly? What sort of song do you sing to a  _baby?_ ”

Weiss Schnee, who could slaughter Grimm and stare down Remnant’s most dangerous gang leaders with a razor-sharp smile, was left stuttering in terror of her own daughter.

“Something calming. Just something that sounds nice, the kind of thing where the words don’t matter so much.”

Ruby tried to make her own voice as calming as possible. A double meltdown would take until breakfast to smooth out again.

Weiss bit her lip, blue eyes flickering from one loved one to another while her body fell back in to the gentle rocking that by now had become almost second nature to them both.

Then, with a deep breath and a self-affirming nod, she began to sing…

“The thorny path, now overcome…  
Has parted for you, Dreaming One.  
Let sun lead you to joy and fun,  
My dearest… dreamer…”

It was a same tune that Ruby had been humming earlier, but it sounded worlds different in the whispered silver of Weiss’s voice.

“Let roses cover, all around   
And springtime songs of birds abound…  
The snow will melt upon the ground,   
And bloom, your garden…”

A light touch to shoulder was all Ruby needed to restart the waltz, her partner smiling as the three of them went sailing across the floor.

“Till briars only dance and sway…  
In light of moon, or sunny day   
Keeping all darkest dreams away-   
But releasing, sadness…”

Ruby began to hum again in low accompaniment, her hands loosely threading through snow white hair as she drew close, cocooning the bundle between them.

Part of was still wondering where she’d heard the song before. Not from Weiss, she was pretty sure, but it sounded so familiar…

“As the thorny path is overcome…  
And parts for you, my Dreaming One  
Let sunshine lead to joy and fun-  
Goodnight, my dreamer-  
Now dream a dream~ for me…..”

Briar twitched a little in her sleep as the last note faded away, making Ruby and Weiss hold their breath-

But the bundle stayed sleeping, tiny blue eyes closed beneath the short tufts of her dark hair.

“…thank goodness.”

The weariness in those two words was almost enough to make Ruby yawn in agreement, though it wasn’t quite enough to keep her from asking-

“Where’d you hear that song from?”

Weiss was already halfway out of the room and had to turn a little, frowning bemusedly, to answer.

“You sang it to me once, that time I was sick in our third year at Beacon. Remember?”

Ruby gave her a truly blank stare.

“..It was part of that ridiculous display you orchestrated while I was bedridden with fever!”

Just the memory of said display was enough to bring fresh irritation to Weiss’s voice, though she kept her furious hiss to a whisper.

“You spent almost a  _week_ sleeping on floor by my bed instead of your own perfectly good bunk! Blake and Pyrrha had to take turns missing class because _you_  were so adamant that I not be left alone- not even for an hour!”

Ohhh yeah…. Ruby remembered that patch of floor and the double dose of cookies she’d baked as a thanks to their friends for helping out.

She hadn’t realized Weiss was still so mad about it.

“And then there was the mortifying business about wrapping me in your cloak and  _carrying_  me whenever I had to leave the room- Really, the only part of that  _entire fiasco_  that I can look back on without wanting to blast you through a wall is the song you sang the night my fever broke!  _Are you telling me you forgot the song you yourself sang?_ ”     

“No!”

Ruby winced at her own gut reaction, which Weiss would see straight through, and quickly amended.

“Um, well… kinda? I was just making the song up as I went that night. I’d forgotten most of it by the next day and you didn’t need it again anyway, so…”

“Typical.”

Quipped Weiss, spinning around without another word and marching the rest of the way out of the room.

Ruby followed more slowly, a small smile growing on her lips.

She’d been sure Weiss had been half asleep, back on that night all those years ago, or else she wouldn’t have dared try to sing to her prickly partner.

Ruby had taken the chance to nurse Weiss herself on the assumption that the sick girl would be too miserable to notice much of what went on around her…

But Weiss had remembered.

Ruby trailed her small family back to their cozy bedroom, a little amused that someone as attentive and warmhearted as Weiss could still have doubts about being a good parent- Still worry about becoming distant to their daughter.

She wouldn’t. Not ever.

If that meant missing sleep three nights out of seven, Weiss would always make time for the ones she loved.

And when that got too stressful and draining, well, that’s what  _Ruby_  was for.

Maybe even more than the Grimm, these days she kept her scythe sharp and ready for her sparring bouts with Weiss.

For the big frustration blowouts where they could decorate the targets with business ties and inane documents that would have otherwise gone to the shredder- but died a much grander death under Myrtenaster’s fire and ice barrage.

Weiss could worry all she liked because Ruby knew their friends were right.

They’d be fine.

One way or another.

Careful as cat Ruby closed the door behind her and tip-toed over to the crib and the beautiful young mother standing beside it.

She slipped her arms around Weiss, tucking her chin into the smaller woman’s shoulder as she beamed down at their little Bee, sleeping soundly beneath the roses-and-snowflakes mobile that Yang and Blake had made.

“Time for bed?”

Weiss sighed and let her head droop against Ruby’s thick mess of hair.

“Past time…”

Ruby gently tightened her hug.

“Probably won’t fall asleep for ages anyway, now that you’re up and thinking?”

“Mmm… Sometimes it’s frightening how well you know me.”

“Heheh.”

There was a moment of quiet as Weiss reached out to touch one of the paper roses, sending the whole mobile spinning.

“…want me to read to you?”

Weiss shook her head.

“How ‘bout if I sing instead? The White Rose Lullaby.”

“The  _what?_ ”

Weiss almost snorted at the name.

“Your song has no white roses in it, Ruby.”

“But it’s only ever been sung for you and Briar… And the two you of are my white rose family, so that makes it the White Rose Lullaby.”

“You dolt…”

“You mean ‘your dolt’.”

“That’s barely an improvement.”

The words had no bit to them though, and it was Weiss to lead them to bed and pulled the covers up close around them.

Ruby curled up at her side, feeling a bit self-conscious now she actually supposed to sing. Weiss’s version was much, much prettier than hers…

“You’re not singing.”

A blush accompanied Ruby’s nervous giggle.

“Heh, well… with my voice it won’t really be singing… You don’t think I’ll wake Bee, will I?”

Ruby could _feel_  Weiss rolling her eyes in the darkness.

“It’s not the voice or the words that matter-“ She turned over to bury a yawn in the crook of Ruby’s neck.

“… it’s the fact that you are here, singing to me. To  _us_.”

A soft press of lips to collarbone made Ruby blush redder than ever, but for once it didn’t send her heart racing.

Instead her pulse slowed, and she smiled at the feel of an answering blush as Weiss tacked on a halfhearted grumble-

“Now hurry up and get started, before I lose any  _more_  of my sleep.”

“’Kay.”

Ruby closed her eyes, took a soft breath…

… and sang sweet dreams into the darkness.


End file.
